ReGeneration Who 2019 Cancelled Just One Week Beforehand
In a series of events not all that shocking for anyone who regularly visits our convention news section, yet another con has been cancelled — and this one in the “just days before it was scheduled to happen” category. In this case, it’s ReGeneration Who, a Rockville, MD based Doctor Who convention.
Can you tell I’ve written a lot of these at this point?
The convention, scheduled to hold their fifth year March 29-31, 2019 at the Bethesda North Marriott announced on their official website:
As a result of a string of last minute cancellations, we see no alternative but to cancel (Re)Generation Who 5. We want to apologize for this as we tried every way possible to move forward, but could not find a way to produce an event of the quality you have come to expect from us.
We will be working with our team to determine if there are any options moving forward. Please note you will need to contact the hotel directly if have guest room reservations.
ReGeneration Who is an event organized by Onezumi Events. Based out of New Jersey, Onezumi Events is managed by Oni Durant and James Harknell. The company also runs two other conventions: Potterverse in Baltimore, MD and Intervention in Rockville, MD. Intervention doesn’t seem to have been held since 2016 though, and no 2019 date has been announced for Potterverse yet.
We don’t have any other details about the cancellation or if refunds are forthcoming, as the company has yet to release any other information. While they announced the cancellation on the convention’s official website, nothing has appeared on the con’s official social media at this time.
If any additional information becomes available, we will update this story.
Update (3/24 10:00a): In a post to the convention’s official facebook group, the ReGeneration Who staff has said that refunds are forthcoming.
Update (3/24 4:00p): In our previous update we linked to a Facebook post by Tom Leitner regarding refunds. Since then, a James Hartstein from Onezumi Events’s official email address has reached out to inform us that “Tom Leitner is not an official authorized source of information or spokesman for the convention or it’s [sic] company, and any statements expressed by him are his own opinions and are not those of Onezumi Events inc.” The post we linked to previously (which can be read in a screenshot here) appears to have since been deleted.
Update (3/25 3:30p): While she is still listed on Onezumi Event’s website as a part of the company, Durant made a post yesterday to her personal Facebook page explaining that she hasn’t been with the organization since last November.
The official Onezumi Events website has quietly gone offline. Still no response from Mr. Harknell or any of the organizers or involved parties –the vendors have yet to receive any information about refunds, or in fact anything at all. Emails continue to go unanswered and it is, at times, mightily difficult to refrain from harmful speculation.
As Emma said: Oni is not in any way associated with this event any more. PLEASE take her name off this release.
The article has been updated. We had her listed because the Onezumi Events website lists her as one of the people in charge still. It’s incredibly bizarre for someone’s name to still be up on a site like that this long after someone’s left the company.
Heck, the fact that the official social media for the convention still hasn’t posted about the cancellation is bizarre too.
The cancellation IS up on their official Facebook page. I just really wish, as a vendor, I’d had more notice. I’ll hopefully be okay, but I know it leaves some vendors with a big hole in their schedule.
It is up now. When I posted that it was only in the group, not the page.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/regeneratingart/ are the artists and vendors who would have shown up. You can still support them by buying from them. Check it out!
Oni Durant has not been with Onezumi Events since November of 2018. An announcement was planned to be made after ReGen Who with the new team member. You can see her personal post here: https://www.facebook.com/onezumi/posts/10157123871261252
Thanks for letting us know.
She should have announced in November not waiting until the sh*t hit the fan. She was still promoting the convention.
It’s been a real heartbreak for all the attendees to not see our friends or even know if we will be getting refunds to prepaid events and autographs & signatures, much less the con ticket price.